Chamonix

A few weeks ago my elder son Jamie, who is living and working in Addis Ababa, told me that he was going to a meeting in Geneva in January, and he fancied a couple of days skiing whilst in Switzerland. So, we quickly thought it might be possible to meet up with him on the slopes, and I started investigating the options.

The main problem was the lack of snow. There had been a big dump in the Alps in November, but nothing since, so that meant that Morzine, which is close to Geneva but not high altitude, wasn’t really an option. Verbier is very expensive. I finally settled on Chamonix, which is not too far from Geneva and has some high up slopes, and it was possible for Jamie to get a bus transfer to the resort mid-week while the rest of us booked a full week with Inghams. We ended up staying at the Rocky Pop Hotel in Les Houches, down the valley from Chamonix itself. Two days before we travelled there was a big fall of snow! The weather forecast for our week was for lots of mist, but in the event every day was lovely and sunny, but cold – down to minus 25 one day.

The skiing was wonderful. Most days we went to a different place: Les Houches on Sunday, Domaine Brévent-Flégère on Monday, Domaine des Grands Montets on Tuesday, back to Les Houches for a half day on Wednesday when Jamie arrived at the hotel, over to Courmayeur in Italy on Thursday, and finally Domaine de Balme on Friday. Each resort has its own characteristics and challenges. I’m not up to doing black runs, but the reds and blues were very good in each place.

Below is the seven minute video of our stay, showing slides and clips from each resort plus the interior of the Rocky Pop. I’m not a good skier, and had no GoPro, so most of the clips are of pretty flat runs.